PENGUIN’S BIG DAY OUT

Melbourne, Australia played host to the 8th annual Linux.conf.au conference at the end of January, drawing a capacity crowd of open source professional developers, enthusiasts and students from around the globe.

The irreverent Australian spirit shone through at this year’s Linux.conf.au (LCA). One of the world’s most high-profile, volunteer-run open source events, LCA continues to offer a seriously technical conference with a seriously low-key vibe. Co-chair of the conference paper committee (and outgoing Linux Australia president) Rusty Russell describes LCA as a talkfest where attendees can get as much out of conversations and hackfests during breaks as they get from official presentations. “Over 10% of attendees are also speakers – and the speakers don’t hide out in the speakers room like they do at a lot of other conferences. Everyone mingles.”

Linus Torvalds announced at the Australian Linux.conf.au that he wants to make the conference mascot, the Tasmanian Devil (considering that the conference took place in Hobart, Tasmania) the new logo for Linux Kernel 2.6.29.